Power of Place - Stories of the Pacific Northwest Edward Krigsman

Join us in this episode (the first of a two-part series) for stories of the B & I Circus Store, founded by Earl Irwin in 1945 in Lakewood, WA. Our guest today is Earl Irwin’s son, Ron Irwin, who ran the store for decades following his father’s passing. Ron is joined by Earl Borgert, the founder’s grandson, family archivist and President of The I.V.A.N. Foundation.

What began as a military surplus outlet housed in an unassuming 500 SF cinderblock storeroom became a prototype for the postwar American shopping mall, eventually expanding to over 300,000 SF. Under Irwin’s exuberant and tireless leadership, the B & I charmed multitudes, attracted by spectacles that transformed the store into a destination for extraordinary adventures.

Recently discovered reel-to-reel recordings allow us to enjoy Earl Irwin’s own voice for the first time since his death in the 70’s. Woven into this audio tapestry are voices of Power of Place listeners—all of whom visited the B & I as children—recalling endless hours of reverie: Whirling on a carousel, collecting autographs from their best-loved sports and movie heroes; and discovering a revolving menagerie, including the store’s resident lowland gorilla, Ivan.

"The mall—with the leased departments under one roof (so they don’t have to drive to get in their car and drive to another location for clothing or another location for sporting goods)—hadn’t been invented yet. It hadn’t really been done anywhere before.” - Ron Irwin

Join us in this episode for a radiant musical memoir by pianist Dick Coolen.

Long before the city’s reputation as an international tech hub, Seattle achieved a globally relevant jazz culture. Here, bands who gathered in the basements of churches, schools and modest homes produced the likes of Ray Charles, Ernestine Anderson and Quincy Jones. Reared in this milieu, our guest’s stories celebrate a free-range childhood in Seattle’s redlined Central District as well as the big band, bebop, and early rock and roll rhythms that filled its avenues.

Dick recounts jamming at Joe Brazil’s Black Academy of Music; of blowing baritone sax at Birdland on Madison. He savors memories of touring with Ike Cole and of collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie; of backing underground drag shows with showtunes; and of visits to a well-regarded violin maker at the Fischer Studio Building. Over the course of his jazz journey which eventually brought him to Port Orchard, Dick footed the family bills by working no fewer than 44 non-musical occupations—from paperboy to firefighter to brick mason.

Dick Coolen’s humility and commitment—qualities he attributes to his working class and Roman Catholic upbringing—offer lessons from an inspired life grounded in community and refined through the lifegiving power of music.

"And that’s what life is….They throw you (♪ short musical phrase ♪). And you say, ‘What can I do with that?’ And you can make it (♪ extended musical phrase ♪)….And it comes out right." ~Dick Coolen

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Jamie Winshall and to the continued success of his son Daniel.

Join us in this episode for the field trip of a century. Our guest, geologist-historian David B. Williams, illuminates the Pacific Northwest’s characteristic highlands and waterways as landscapes of perpetual transformation.

With a wry wink, this raconteur’s stories fuse the sensitivity of a naturalist with the diligence of a research geek. Amble through Seattle with David as he reveals his city’s subterranean secrets: A mosquito fleet schooner lost somewhere below downtown’s streets; old growth forests immersed under Lake Union; an art deco office tower whose foundation stones invite us to touch “deep time”—almost unimaginably greater than the time scale of human lives and human plans we hold so dear.

David’s tales animate the experiences of early Seattleites who swung picks and shot water cannons to forcefully reshape our glacially-formed landscape into a modern metropolis; a progression that continues today in response to climate change.

"I’m interested in connections…How are we influenced by the landscape around us? And then, it’s the connections between people and place." ~David B. Williams

Join us in this episode and step inside the Ray Gibson Caballeros Club with Tim Person (President & CEO) and Ms. Ellen Smith (Manager).

In the 1950’s, two trailblazing African American men grew weary of exclusion from downtown Tacoma’s restaurants, concert halls and bars. They envisioned a member-owned, private club for the city’s Black community. A founders group next acquired real estate for this purpose in the form of an inconspicuous house on a dead-end street in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood on acreage heralding sweeping views of Mount Rainier. About twenty benefactors soon mortgaged their private residences to fund expansion of that building into the Caballeros Club as we know it today; with splendid spaces supporting diversified membership that includes women.

If the “Cab’s” walls could speak, they would voice this episode’s heartwarming stories: Tales of dedicated civic leaders rubbing elbows at the downstairs bar for decades, of friends swaying to live music, of earnest charitable projects, of hearty food served with piquant cocktails…within a private Pacific Northwest haven abounding in joy and camaraderie.

"One of the things that makes us proud…is that it is our club—we are not renting the property. We’ve purchased it. So, it has the feeling of ownership; you are not going to take this away from us. This is ours.” ~Ms. Ellen Smith

Join us in this episode as we explore the rural culture of Orcas Island with Craig Gibson, fourth-generation owner of North Beach Inn (NBI), located on the outskirts of the remote village of Eastsound.

Craig’s forebears acquired the 100-acre waterfront fruit farm in 1911. In 1932 they constructed a handful of the 16-rustic cottages now dotting NBI’s 8-mile stretch of sandy beach, where panoramic sunsets brighten Canada’s Gulf Islands.

Craig explores the sources of NBI’s longevity, its reliance on word-of-mouth marketing, and the exceptional loyalty of its customers. Born out of his family’s Scottish heritage, the business has been shaped by an evolving ethos prioritizing good relationships with family, guests, workers, neighbors, and community.

Listen to an extraordinary saga of an Island family, as they steward and share the homestead into it’s second century. The episode concludes with an invitation for you to come and experience NBI yourself.

“The strangest thing that happened is we survived to the fourth generation. And they’ve done studies that say that… there’s a fifty percent chance of making it to the second generation. There’s six to ten percent chance of making it to the third generation…So that we’ve made it to the third, going on the fourth, going on the fifth…It’s quite remarkable. It is almost miraculous.” ~Craig Gibson

Join us in this episode for a conversation with a wise friend about the deepest matters of the heart. Our guest is theologian, novelist, and mystic Mary Lane Potter.

Mary’s quest for a closer relationship with the divine stretches from her childhood in an immigrant community steeped in the traditions of Christian Reform evangelism; to her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago Divinity School, then a life of service as a lay preacher and tenured academic; followed by a conversion to Judaism and a literary career.

Mary has authored the novels Strangers and Sojourners: Stories from the Lowcountry and A Woman of Salt, as well as a spiritual autobiography Seeking God and Losing the Way: A Story of Love and Conversions. Her upcoming novel is based on the biblical character Miriam. An avid essayist, her work is published to diverse audiences, including Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish news and culture.

Mary’s stories will whisk you off to Sri Lanka to step over moonstones, into the Sinai Peninsula on camelback, before returning to the oceanic Pacific Northwest just in time for the Jewish festival of Sukkot. We conclude with an open invitation for you to participate in building what Mary calls “a pop-up sacred space.”

Mary’s storytelling—intimate yet prophetic—will illuminate the liminal spaces between the sacred and the profane in your daily life.

"What I knew as a child...and I’ve been spending my whole life trying to understand and articulate, is that we can experience the divine or the sacred; and we can experience something that is more-than; that something that is greater-than; something that is beyond us, and not know it."

~Mary Lane Potter